Mobile Number Portability or MNP has been the buzz word since last couple of years in India and finally MNP has been launched in India in the state of Haryana and other states will follow soon. By Jan 20 2011 it is expected to cover the entire country.
As predicted, Mobile Number Portability did not cause heavy gains nor losses to any carrier operating in each circles. Because if 10 subscribers port out from carrier ‘A’, it was very much possible that 10 other subscribers might port-in to carrier A.
That’s exactly what happened. MNP hasn’t changed the entire game so far. This is a short-term conclusion I must say. But, we should actually wait further more to reach to a long-term conclusion on this because according to the mobile porting rules, each subscriber is locked for 90 days before he / she opts for porting again. Even in that case we might see a similar trend for porting but we can only assume without actual stats.
The trend also indicates clearly that subscribers are shifting from CDMA to GSM. May be due to limited handsets availability and due to limited possibilities in changing over the handsets. Coverage or call drops was never the problem for CDMA users I have seen till date.
The private mobile players continue to play important role in growing mobile subscriber base in India. Vodafone, Reliance Communications (RCom), Bharati Airtel and Idea Cellular led growth in mobile subscribers in March as per report published by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for March 2011.
Bharati Airtel remains the top player in Indian telecom industry followed by Vodafone Essar has witnessed highest no. of new mobile subscriptions. The company is also planning for IPO this year and has been aggressive in launch of its 3G services.Idea Cellular which has heavily marketed on mobile number portability has been counted in as third as far as subcriber base is concerned.
The state run companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited did not appear in top gainers list. There was recently news of merger of BSNL and MTNL which was supposed to help the companies to improve their performance and also increase user base.
With this the total mobile user base in India has grown to 811.59 mn at the end of March months. During this month there were additions of 20.21 mobiles subscribers under different operators. Also total broadband user base in India has grown to 11.47 million with an increase of 0.40 million during March as per TRAI report.
But what does MNP really mean for the consumer or the cell phone user in India. Is it really going to benefit him. Lets have a look at the Pros and Cons of Mobile Number Potability (MNP) in India.
Advantages of Implementing Mobile Number Portability:
1. Mobile subscribers would be able to switch service provider while retaining their existing mobile number.
2. Just for a small fee of Rs.19/- you can change to a new Mobile Service Provider.
3. You can switch from GSM to CDMA and vice versa.
Disadvantages of Implementing Mobile Number Portability:
1. You cannot switch from one State to other which would mean that you cannot have one number across the country. For eg. if your number is registered in Punjab you cannot switch to a service provider in Maharashtra.
2. Once you switch your service provider you cannot switch again for the next 90 days.
3. You might loose balance on prepaid cards depending on your Mobile Service Provider.
4. In case you make a platform shift you will have to change handsets. This means if you decide to move from CDMA-to-GSM or vice-versa, you will also have to change your handset.
As of March 2011, the world has a Population of around 6,909,500,000 out of which 5 billion people use mobile phones. China is the country with the highest number of mobile users where 875,600,000 people use mobile phone out of a population of 1,341,000,000 which is 64.4% phone users. India is second ranking where 811,589,101 people use mobile phone out of a population of 1,210,193,422 which is 67.9% phone users.
Well to sum it up it seems on the whole the customer is again going to be the king and the mobile companies would surely introduce very attractive plans to retain their existing customers. Mobile number Portability is surely a great thing which is happening to the Indian Mobile users. It’s too early to predict inclination to one certain company for its quality of service through just the first MNP cycle we’ve seen. Another 9 – 12 months should give us better picture.Lets keep our fingers crossed.
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